TV Tuner cards anyone?

blade · Post by **blade** » Wed Jan 29, 2003 11:29 pm

matt, do you run xp? I previously tried a ati ve tuner with xp and it would not work. But maybe mine was bad.

As far as a game cube working with one fearfox, I'm not even sure what a game cube is.

The asus one does have rca inputs but doesn't appear to have a svhs input, unless it's hidden from view. Not sure which you'll need. I went by the pics of it on newegg:

The leadtek one is back down to 56.99 and has more inputs on it. Hope I didn't steer you towards the wrong one. I mainly liked the asus because of it having the newer and supposedly better 880 chip.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 1:27 am

I'm using a 6 year old Hauppauge WinTV PCI card. Works great for duping old VHS tapes to VCD but I want something better for when I get a DVD burner.

I like the Asus card you linked Blade, particularly because it captures images up to 720x480. The WinTV card only supports 320x240. Fine for VCD but not so good for DVD.

I emailed Asus to ask if it has an S-Video input.

PreDatoR · Post by **PreDatoR** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 1:48 am

to the left of those rca's i swear it looks like there's another plug there that is probably svideo... i highly doubt asus would kick out a tv card without a svideo on it... i'm really eye balling that leadtek card... need to play with this WinTV-radio a little more before i bail to it... just gotta find my damn remote LOL

blade · Post by **blade** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 2:25 am

The hauppauge #495 pci card I have has 1998 on it but according the hauppauge site it's still the only one that decodes dolby surround. The sound is very good so that's keeping me from getting a newer one.

FP, with powervcr you can record programs up to 720x576. And you can edit the compressions about anyway you want. You have many presets but you can make your own also. I'd imagine it would work with the one you have since it works well with mine.

One thing I've learned is you pretty much have to have the sound bitrate set at least to 224. At 128 the recorded sound is scratchy.

I think you're right Pred, it does look like a svhs input to the left. The pic is too dark. Still can't find my remote either, but I don't need it.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 8:48 am

Nope - this is an OLD WinTV card. Only supports 350x240. I downloaded PowerVCR trial (VERY interesting app - I like that you can capture directly to VCD compliant MPEG1 or DVD complaint MPEG2!) and while MPEG1 captures work fine, MPEG2 is squashed horizontally. It's like 352 x 480.

I'm going to look into that Asus capture card, plus I plan on getting a DV camera soon

Oh and I brightened up that screenshot of the Asus and there definately seems to be an s-video jack just to the left of the yellow video jack.

fearfox · Post by **fearfox** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 12:09 pm

I got one coming this way,

it has the proper connections so im crossing my fingers and hopefully it will work.

blade · Post by **blade** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 11:03 pm

MPEG2 is squashed horizontally. It's like 352 x 480.

You chose the wrong setting. I did that once too and it is easy to do when learning that software. Check again and also note you can make your own setting. I'd try it at 640x480 just to see if it will work, and I think it will since the software controls it.

Or are you saying it was set right, but the result was squashed? Mine did that too, just took more messing with the settings to stop that.

Or perhaps it isn't available in the trial version, I forgot if it was or not but the full version powervcr has many various settings and you can make your own.

Good luck fearfox, hope it does what all you want.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 12:22 am

Blade, I don't have a choice on the setting. I'm selecting the pre-defined MPEG-2 DVD setting. If I change it, Nero probably won't burn it as a DVD without re-encoding it.

Besides, I KNOW the hardware. The old Hauppauge PCI cards like I have, and the USB version I sold you are strictly 320x240 capture max. Anything bigger than that is going to be extrapolated and not actually captured at that size.

No big deal - I'm leaning towards getting the Gainward GF4 Ti4800SE. Seems to have nice capture specs, built-in firewire, and since it's dual head I free up the slot being used by my 2nd video card.

I'll hopefully be getting one of the newer Sony DRU500AX DVD +/- RW drives in a week. They've been sold out for months but I have a friend in California who found a source who claims they have some in stock for $349. Should also be getting a DV camcorder at the same time - just need to sit down and order it unless I find it local for a good price. Those kind of thing I prefer to buy local so I can easily return it if I have a problem.

Hopefully will be experimenting with converting some of my old VHS vacation and family videos to DVD soon.

Toys, toys...

Well I played around with PowerVCR but I'm not impressed with the quality using the VCD setting. It has a LOT of compression artifacts.

I was hoping to use this to save a step in making VCDs but it looks MUCH better if I capture it to a raw AVI with VirtualDub, then trim and convert it in TMPGEnc.

Still convenient for a quick grab if I need to send someone a video in a hurry.

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 12:28 pm

I have the Winfast (Leadtek) TV2000XP TV Tuner card. Works very well and drivers are updated pretty regularly. Nice product.

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 4:03 pm

So what's the consensus? ASUS or Leadfast? ATI or Happauge (s/p?)?

blade · Post by **blade** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 5:31 pm

The Asus one has the newest chip and is suppose to provide a better picture. Though many seem to love the great priced leadtek one also. Leadtek has a new one coming out soon with that newer chip that the asus has.

From what I see from others, ATI makes good ones and the hauppauge I have works and sounds excellent. I don't think you can go wrong with any of those you mentioned. But be sure the one you choose is stereo, mono really sux.

Mainly, avoid a usb one.

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Sun May 11, 2003 5:38 am

I'll let you know my experience, all with ATI has been hit and miss.

I got an AIW radeon that worked fine, typical ATI drivers though but getting a bit better. I think about three different drivers were needed and had to be installed in a particular order but no info with the card about it. Its still working fine in XP now.

I also bought two ATI TV Wonder pci cards that weren't supported in XP. Ones working fine in my daughter's winME machine still and the other one I've worked at installing under XP in my sons. Before ATI put out specific XP drivers there was a workaround I got at 3drage that hosed XP once but I got working after that. I then took it out when he went to college and just tried to reinstall as he's home for the summer. There are specific XP drivers now but still the old ATI 'secret' installation instructions. Got it working initially but it quit or screwed up XP again and then worked a whole weekend trying to get it going and gave up. Has problems with a couple files in the audio codec.

One big improvement I made in our home due to long cable lengths to the kids rooms, I got a signal booster, about 70usd and that improved the signal greatly to all the TVs.

Good luck, a stand alone TV would've saved me about 16 hours of frustration but no way of knowing that origonally.

Judg3 · Post by **Judg3** » Sat May 17, 2003 6:01 am

Even though this theard has sorta died, I thought I'd ask my Q here anyway.

If you scroll down here http://www.hauppauge.com/html/products.htm you'll see there's a WinTV-D for Digital TV. Does that mean it'd decode my digital cable? Just trying to figure this out. It'd be nice to have the digital only channels in the office!

blade · Post by **blade** » Sat May 17, 2003 6:12 am

That's what it says in the specsheet. Of course you'd need the proper feed, but it says "Digital TV on your PC screen" and "Digital TV on your TV set". Read the specsheet for some interesting info.

http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/html/wintv-d.pdf

Looks like an awesome card!

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Tue May 20, 2003 8:46 pm

I got the tv card today from a terrible trader but that is a different story for another thread. It was recognized by Win XP and I downloaded the driver from the ASUS website but I have no software to use the tuner or the capture or the vcr proggies it's supposed to come with. I can't seem to find it anywhere on the web. Can anybody offer advice for me?